We had a very energetic and fun filled evening when the lovely Carina from The Sultan's Sirens Belly Dancers visted the Broadbridge Bombshells WI last week. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it was probably one of the funniest and enjoyable evenings that I've had in a long while and very little alcohol was consumed ( well maybe just one glass of wine).
Carina started off with a short history of belly dancing, explaining about the different styles and why the dances were performed, in a nutshell we learned that the art of belly dancing arose from the ancient rituals and folk dances of Middle Eastern cultures. It was thought to have originated from Ancient Egypt, but also occurred in Greece, Persia, Hungary and Spain. There are quite a few theories as for why people began to belly dance, examples range from blessing and healing people, to mimicking the harvesting and sowing of crops, preparation for childbirth, preparation of the wedding ceremony, to secular entertainment. It is also thought that it may have evolved from the worship of the great mother goddess and developed from the combination of fertility cults, religious rituals, as well as magic and secular dances. The movement in traditional belly dancing is similar to the movement characteristics of a snake: slippery and continuous. The movement itself is based on a firm connection with the ground, and the dancers then begin to layer on the movement of the hips and pelvis, spinning around, movinging the upper torso, rib cage, and arms. In an experienced dancer the rib cage can remain still, the abdomen can undulate, the pelvis can tilt, and the hips can take a shimmy type shape, it is all terribly impressive! And we were keen to get started!
I wasn't expecting as many Bombshells to shuck off their shoes and socks to join in, but most of us braved showing our hooves (after being hidden away during a long winter) with relatively little embarrassment. We started with a 10 minute warm up routine which involved stretching out our arms, legs, hands and feet so that we were ready to learn a few of the key moves of traditional belly dancing.
Once we were nice and warm, Carina let us have a little rest whilst she demonstrated a beautiful dance so that we could see just what we were aiming for! It was a breathtaking performance and demonstrated perfectly the intricacies of the dance... Then it was our turn, we all stood up and began to learn some basic moves. They were actually very simple in isolation, there was the hip twist, pelvic tilts, side steps, hand movements above our heads, out in front and to the side. My favourite was the hip twist, I think I nailed that one, the difficulty for me came when the movements were put together in some semblance of a dance. I could see other Bombshells in front of me looking totally coordinated, whilst I was quite frankly 'doing my own thing' for a good half of the time! No matter though, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and found that just 20 minutes of dancing was enough to have rendered me more than a little breathless and lovely and warm, so it is clearly good exercise too! After a little question and answer session, a cuppa and a chocolate cup cake courtesy of Sally we all went home a little wiser, fitter and with a smile on our faces.
Below are details of Carina's classes and a few pictures of her teaching us our little mini class. I think some people were definitely thinking of joining up to learn more. What a great evening.
